ALAMOSA — An upbeat Scott McInnis bounded back onto the campaign trail here Monday, making his first public appearance since it was reported last week that large sections of “original” works published in his name were plagiarized.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate, along with his primary opponent Dan Maes, spoke about illegal immigration, water storage and Piñon Canyon at the Colorado Farm Bureau’s midsummer meeting.

None of the roughly 180 people in attendance publicly asked McInnis about last week’s troubles, their focus instead on issues facing the agricultural community.

McInnis, who canceled a public event Thursday and did not appear at a GOP event with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday, spoke to the media afterward with his wife, Lori, at his side.

He reiterated that he was in the race for the long haul and jump-starting his campaign in southern Colorado.

“Do I look like I’m going anywhere? These boots are made for walking, and I’m ready to fight,” he said to The Denver Post, looking down at his brown cowboy boots.

He also addressed again the controversy surrounding articles he submitted to the Hasan Family Foundation as original works but which included whole pages and passages that were similar to or copied directly from a 1984 essay by now-Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs.

“It was an obvious mistake. I stood up, took responsibility and moved on,” McInnis said.

Unresolved issues

Left unanswered, however, is the question of who is responsible for the plagiarism.

McInnis blamed a Glenwood Springs water engineer whom he said he hired to provide research.

But the researcher, 82-year- old Rolly Fischer, said the former congressman was lying and said McInnis’ campaign tried to make him sign a confession taking full blame for the lack of attribution, which he refused to do.

In the past week, several Republicans and newspapers in Denver, Grand Junction and Fort Collins have suggested McInnis drop out of the race.

In taping for a debate for KBDI-Channel 12 and KCNC- Channel 4, both GOP Senate hopefuls criticized McInnis, saying he has responded poorly to the plagiarism revelations.

“I think he’s got a lot of questions that still need to be answered,” said former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton.

She stopped short of saying McInnis would be a drag on the ticket, but she said the party needs “people with character and integrity who do what they say they’re going to do. . . . It’s easy to talk about being a certain kind of a person, but do you have the record to back that up?”

The best thing for McInnis to do would be “come out into the open,” said her opponent, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck.

“This certainly has legs,’ Buck said, adding that he has been focused more on his race than McInnis’. “I question whether the campaign has handled it that well.”

McInnis, who said he would repay the $300,000 he received from the foundation, said he spoke to its founder, Malik Hasan, last week, but declined Monday to discuss the details.

He also said he left a message for Hobbs last week but has not spoken to him.

Voters still deciding

Maes, saddled with his own problems ranging from campaign violations to a request from some former donors (who have since donated to McInnis) to return their money if he doesn’t come clean about his finances, said he was releasing his tax returns today to a conservative Colorado Springs website, theconstitutionalisttoday.com.

He called the request from previous donors “a publicity stunt to damage me.”

Many of those attending the farm bureau’s meeting said they had not decided which Republican candidate to support and were split over whether McInnis’ plagiarism problems should affect their decision.

Dave Whitney, a rancher and former farmer from Logan County, said he hasn’t decided which candidate to vote for in the primary because he likes both men. The plagiarism stories won’t affect his decision one way or another.

“I discount it,” he said. “I don’t know that I know the facts of what happened.”

Connie Hass also doesn’t know whom she will back in the Republican primary, but as a schoolteacher she has reservations about McInnis.

“It’s very difficult to tell my kids at school that you should vote for someone who did that,” she said.

Taking questions from the audience, Maes and McInnis agreed on most issues, with a notable exception being Piñon Canyon.

McInnis does not oppose the expansion of the Army training site but said he does oppose the Army’s potential use of eminent domain. No private-property owner should sell unless he or she wants to, he said.

Maes, getting applause from the audience, said he will stand “firm against expansion if that’s what you want me to.”

A customer dining at Washington’s Oceanaire restaurant noticed an unusual line at the bottom of his receipt: “Due to the rising costs of doing business in this location, including costs associated with higher minimum wage rates, a 3% surcharge has been added to your total bill.”

Three fundraising giants decided to pull events from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday, signaling a direct blowback to his business empire from his comments on Charlottesville’s racial unrest.